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Friday, March 28, 2014

Five persons are being tried before a military court tribunal
in Cairo, including one soldier and civilians working in the media. The
five defendants have been referred to the militray court “S28” in Nasr
City, Cairo which began its sessions on February 24th, 2014

The
first defendant is charged with illegally gaining access to classified
material belonging to the ministry of Defense by entering the operations
room of the fifth “smoke” regiment and copying video footage of a
meeting between the Commander in Chief of the armed forces and the
chemical warfare unit. This material is classified as pertaining to
national security and is classified as top secret which may only be
obtained by direct permission of the armed forces. By handing this video
footage to the second, third and fourth defendants, all members of the
“Rasd” news network, military secrets were broadcasted on the internet
without permission. By copying the video footage, the first defendant,
is charged of disobeying orders during service in the fifth “smoke”
regiment.

The second, third and fourth
defendants, who are founding members of the “Rasd” news network, are
charged with inciting the first defendant and hence being accessory to
the illegally gain of access to classified material belonging to the
Ministry of Defense. The second, third and fourth defendants are charged
of broadcasting this classified material on the internet through the
“Rasd” news network.

The fifth defendant is charged
with broadcasting classified military material consisting of 23 letters
originating from the General Secretariat of the ministry of Defense.

The first hearing of the military
trial was conducted in the presence of lawyers from human rights
organisations, such as Kareem Abdul -Radhi from the Arabic Network for
Human Rights Information. According to Abdul-Radi the second hearing was
postponed from February 26th to March 2nd. The hearing of March 2nd was
then postponed to March 4th to declare the fugitive defendants.

The military misdemeanor court held its first hearings on February 24th
announcing the referal of the fourth and fifth defendants to the court
and postponing the case to March 2nd. On March 2nd the court annonunced
again that the fourth and fifth defendands were referred to the court as
the defendands had not been informed and the hearings were postponed
again until March 4th. On March 4th the military misdemeanor court
sentenced that it did not have the jurisdiction to hear the case and
referred it to the military prosecutor to take the necessary actions.

On March
16th, the case was further referred by the military prosecutor to the
military criminal court which started its first hearings on March 18th.
On March 18th, the military criminal court announced the referal of the
defendands to this court

the case was postponed again to March 24th.
This was repeated on March 24th and the case was postponed to a new
session on March 30th to allow for the needs of the defense to call witnesses and to show videos related to the case